Friday, October 7, 2011

Yay! It fits perfectly at the end of the hall where I get to see it a dozen times a day. In fact I find myself looking down there just to see all it's lovliness. Now I just need to work on my penmanship. I thought when I was making this, "Wow, this is HUGE, I'll be able to fit a ton of words on it." Apparently not. I'll need to adjust my writing style. But I'm super excited to try the new chalk pen my sweet friend gave me for my birthday last night. Does she know me, or what?

Love all the detail on this frame. It's quite heavy too. And you can't get better than free...thanks Mom! Here she is in her former life. I was able to save the painting itself and bring it to Goodwill.

I found this fun cross-stitch on eBay and snatched it up for just $18. I had another place in mind, but until a new table lamp (hopefully for my birthday *wink*wink*) gets decided first, it will sit right here for now.

This started out as a large oil painting my mom had purchased from an auction. She was ready to part with it and the painting itself wasn't my cup of tea. So I removed the painting, it was a separate stretched canvas that fit inside of the wood frame, and donated it to Goodwill. I had Lowe's cut a piece of thin plywood to fit the inside of the frame. I painted it with two coats of chalkboard paint (use a foam roller). Then my husband nailed it in place with our nail gun and air compressor. Because the frame itself is thin along the inner most edges, we could only nail into the thicker outer edges of the frame, so the board doesn't fit flush against the front. Because I chose plywood, there is a bumpy woodgrain to it. I'm not happy with the ridges in the plywood since it's not completely smooth and writing on it is difficult. If I could do it over again (and I may), I would research what to use instead and find something that is completely smooth.

The cookie sheet one I purchased from a fun local junk/repurpose store. They just took an old serving tray that already had the metal rim to it. I can tell from the backside that it had a faux wood grain in the center. Think 1960's barwear. They painted the center of the tray with chalkboard paint and drilled 2 holes to thread the ribbon through. I thought "I can so make that" but knew I wouldn't have time to seek out my own cheap tray so I just bought it. It was a huge splurge ($25) for me since I'm a make it yourself kind of girl. ;)